NIGHT SWALLOWS (2013)

 

                        “Night Swallows” is a Russian TV series available on Amazon Prime.  It is eight parts running about 45 minutes each.  The series is very loosely based on the famous “Night Witches” of WWII.  This was an all-woman bombing unit (even the ground crews were female) that was formed by aviatrix Maj. Marina Roskova, who used her personal connection to Stalin to get approval.  The 588^th Night Bomber Regiment was deployed in June, 1942.  Later the name was changed to the 4^th Taman Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment.  The nickname was given to them by the Germans because they would shut off their engines to glide in to bomb and it sounded like the swishing of brooms.  They flew the Polikarpov PO-2 biplane which was originally designed for training and crop-dusting.  It became the most produced wooden bi-plane in history.  Although painfully slow, it was difficult to shoot down because its maximum speed was below the stall speed of German fighters.  It also was very maneuverable.  The unit flew until the end of the war and totaled 23,000 sorties and 3,000 tons of bombs dropped.  23 of the women were awarded the Hero of Stalin award.  It’s commander Maj. Yevdokiya Bershanskaya was the only woman to receive the Order of Suvarov.

                        The series concentrates on a small group of female pilots.  It covers one winter as the series has them dealing with the difficulties of the cold and snow.  To attract a male audience, the ladies are connected to a commando unit and they coordinate some missions and get romantically linked.  The main character is a comely young pilot who becomes the unit leader.  She falls in love with the leader of the commandos.  Her second in command is a married pilot who has a reputation for being a brilliant tactician, but tends to disobey orders.  She is tormented by the unknown fate of her husband, who is a soldier.  Those nefarious Germans are out to eliminate the “witches”.  For instance, there is an episode where a renowned German ace is brought in and provided with night-vision goggles to take on the girls at night.  Then a follow up episode has the commandos trying to recover the device.

                        The series is entertaining if you don’t set the bar too high.  It has quite a bit of action and a balance of soap opera.  The action is basically the ladies doing some incredibly accurate bombing or the commandos getting into fire-fights.  The CGI on the bombing missions is fine.  Being staged at night, it is harder to see the warts.  You’ll get used to the fact that they never miss.  The combat is satisfactory for a low budget affair. The sets are fine and the snow is obviously real.  The dialogue is hard to judge because the subtitles are clearly second-rate.  I’m pretty sure Russians did not use the term “my bad”.  The acting is surprisingly good.  Unfortunately, the characters are mostly stereotypes, including some villainous Germans.  There is also a villainous Soviet officer who is out to get the unit and one of the girls literally gets into bed with him.  However, the leads are appealing and you do care about them.  The romances are only slightly sappy.

                        I don’t know if I am recommending it.  I certainly don’t want someone investing 6 hours into a subtitled Russian TV series unless you have nothing better to do.  Personally, I watched it while walking on a treadmill.  It worked for me because watching and having to read the subtitles made the time go by quicker.  There it is -  it is a decent time waster.  Now I move on to the next Amazon Prime Russian WWII series.  They have a surprising number of them.  Not a reason to get Amazon Prime.  I’ll call it a perk, if you are a war movie fanatic. 

GRADE = C